Senior AI/ML Engineer - Remote

Optum / UnitedHealth Group
Irvine, CA / remotely from anywhere within the U.S. / Minneapolis

About the job

We are seeking a self-motivated and proactive individual to drive the development and implementation of AI-based tools and workflows. You will collaborate closely with research, engineering, and product teams to translate cutting-edge AI advancements into production-ready capabilities. The ideal candidate consistently seeks opportunities to enhance system performance and contribute to organizational objectives, while upholding ethical AI principles by embedding fairness, transparency, and accountability throughout the model development lifecycle.

Responsibilities

Design and implement AI systems for conversational search in medical content

Evaluate, debug, and improve conversational AI to ensure accuracy and efficiency

Monitor and optimize system performance for latency, cost, and reliability

Explore and apply reinforcement learning and self-improving techniques

Collaborate and communicate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to deliver scalable solutions

Ensure responsible and ethical AI practices throughout all stages of development

Stay up-to-date with advances in AI/ML and actively contribute ideas, research, or solutions to improve team and product capabilities

Collaborate with research, engineering, and product teams to translate cutting-edge AI advancements into production-ready capabilities. Uphold ethical AI principles by embedding fairness, transparency, and accountability throughout the model development lifecycle

Qualifications

Minimum

Graduate degree in computer Science or similar fields

4+ years of hands-on experience in AI/ML, with a solid focus on natural language processing (NLP) and Language Models

3+ years of experience with libraries such as Langchain, OpenAI API, Hugging Face Transformers, or similar tools for finetuning and integrating LLMs

Experience with agentic frameworks such as LangGraph, AutoGen, Bedrock, or Vertex AI, demonstrated by contributing to projects involving the design of modular and scalable AI agents

Preferred

Experience deploying agentic systems in production environments, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance

Experience with RL training for language models

Experience working on collaborative software projects using GitHub

Proven ability to engage in AI/ML research, evidenced by peer-reviewed publications or technical reports, and by incorporating recent advances in NLP and agentic frameworks into product-led projects